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Tis the season to give

Ever wonder what it is like to run a foundation?

It sounds really exotic and fancy but it’s actually quite easy to start a foundation. My wife and I did it a few years by making a small contribution to a Fidelity donor advised fund. Now we are the proud advisers to a DAF that gives us the flexibility to separate our donations from our giving. A DAF lets us contribute in a way that maximizes our tax benefits while decoupling it from when we give from the fund. It’s a great system.

Want to learn more? Leif does a great job explaining how this works in his epic post on the subject:

The Donor Advised Fund : A Smarter Way to Give [Physician on Fire] – “A donor advised fund (DAF) is an excellent and tax-efficient way to give to charity. The vast majority of my charitable giving is to and from my DAF. There are several big advantages to using a DAF as opposed to giving cold, hard cash, or writing checks.”

As for the actual giving, I really enjoy how Andy and his family approach giving:

How to Make Charitable Giving a Family Tradition [Marriage Kids and Money] – “Charitable giving can feel difficult or even impossible when we’re in debt and barely scraping by. When we’ve lifted ourselves up to a position of financial strength and confidence, giving back feels like the right thing to do.” This post shares how Andy and his family have made giving a part of their family tradition – it’s a lovely post.

Using Your Real Hourly Wage to Make Smarter Financial Decisions [Life and My Finances] – “Your real hourly wage is the amount you are actually making per hour after all work expenses are accounted for. These expenses include things like the cost of your commute to work each day, work clothes, unpaid lunch breaks, etc.

Discovering how much you actually earn per hour can be a real eye opener. But once you know this number, you can use it to make smarter financial decisions.”

Lastly, our video for today comes from my good friend Bob Lotich of Seed Time – how many of these 17 things do you do?

Have a great week and consider sending this to a friend who might want to see it!